The 800MHz frequency band has attracted the highest amount of bids at about €2.6 billion ($3.4 billion). There are about 71 3G slots available for auction in India, bidding on 22 telecoms zones in India, with 9 companies taking part in the 3G sale. The latest auction results are posted here.

Aggressive 3G bids could spell trouble for mobile operators. The world’s fastest-growing mobile market has 12 providers, four times the number operating in China. Fourteen million new subscriptions were added in India last month alone, but new entrants have scrambled to win customers by cutting tariffs that were already among the lowest in the world. The Government has said that it expects proceeds from the auction to exceed its original $US 8 billion target, helping it to plug its fiscal deficit, which was at a 16-year high last year.